The Smell of Homemade Bread in the House

We ran out of bread yesterday. Since school started, we've been going through a lot of bread around here and it's hard to keep up. The first few weeks I was buying the organic, preservative free, whole grain bread from Whole Foods. The sandwiches would come back half-eaten and the bread was always stale after two days. Next I started getting soft potato bread from Giant, which was gobbled up in it's entirety, until I read the ingredients which listed several scary-sounding "dough conditioners". I don't think bread should be made with the same thing I use to keep my hair soft and shiny, even if it does make it delicious. So today I decided that rather than try and find a store-bought replacement for my bread dilemma, I would make my own. I'm a pretty decent cook, so how hard could it be, right?

There is a big difference between being a cook and a baker. You can be a good cook without being precise. If you have a basic knowledge of how things go together, the rest is just instinct and taste. A little too much salt? No big deal. With baking, it's a whole different story. Baking is a science - and I've never been very good at science. The recipe I used is one my mom used to make when I was a kid, so I was expecting it to taste a certain way. It did not taste that way, but it did make the whole house smell amazing for several hours today and both kids did gobble it up (grape jelly for one and nutella for the other). Next time I'll try sticking a little closer to the recipe and not trying to improvise because I don't have the exact ingredients. That smell was pretty incredible - and it was also pretty awesome to watch my kids enjoying a slice of bread I made with love for them. Here's the recipe:

Perfect White Bread
Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups milk (whole or 2%, not skim)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter
5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:
1. Dissolve yeast in warm water. In saucepan, combine milk, sugar, salt, and butter. Heat over low heat until butter is melted and sugar is just dissolved, stirring frequently. Set aside to cool.
2. In good stand mixer, combine yeast mixture, milk mixture, and 2 cups of flour. Beat well with dough hook, scraping down sides, until smooth. Add the remaining flour a little at a time until moderately stiff. Let machine kneed dough over low speed until smooth and elastic, 4-5 minutes.
3. Place in lightly greased bowl, flipping dough over to get the whole thing greased before covering and letting it rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/4 hours.
4. Punch dough down and turn it out onto lightly floured surface. Divide it in two and shape it into loaves. Put in two greased 8 1/4" standard loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled again, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 30 minutes. Brush top with melted butter and continue baking for 15 more minutes or until browned on top and hollow sounding when tapped. Remove from pans and let cool on wire rack. Enjoy!